Key actors — tap for context
Cecilie Myrseth
Norwegian Minister of Trade and Industry for the Labour Party
Why here: proposed NOK 94 million for a national time service
More info →Justervesenet
Norwegian metrology authority
Why here: holds the national time scale based on atomic clocks and connects Norway to world time
Nkom
Norwegian Communications Authority
Why here: found that the jamming of satellite signals in the north comes from areas east of the border
Sikt
Norwegian research and education network
Why here: according to the proposal, is to build the new time service
Finnmark
Norway's northernmost county, bordering Russia
Why here: reports satellite signal jamming almost daily in its eastern part
More info →
Norway
Nordic country and NATO member
Why here: wants to build time infrastructure independent of satellites
More info →
NRK
Norwegian public broadcaster (television and radio)
Why here: called the project a national super clock
More info →Why the state needs a backup source of time
Precise time is more than a number on a display. Mobile networks, payment terminals and data networks are synchronized by it. If data systems do not know the time to the millisecond, a phone can, for example, lose its location, and in the worst case an aircraft may have to stay on the ground or land elsewhere. NRK ↗ Digi.no ↗A large part of society today takes its time from satellites. However, a signal from orbit is very weak by the time it reaches the receiver, so it can be both drowned out and spoofed from a ground-based transmitter. Norway therefore wants a source of time that does not depend on satellites. The country already has a national time and frequency reference, held by the metrology authority Justervesenet — what is new is distributing it outside the satellite path. Justervesenet ↗
Minister of Trade and Industry Cecilie Myrseth summed it up by saying that having the time be correct and traceable is "absolutely crucial for a great many societally critical functions in Norway and in the rest of Europe." NRK ↗ Regjeringen.no ↗
What is happening over eastern Finnmark
Jamming of satellite signals in eastern Finnmark is practically an everyday occurrence. It affects air traffic — pilots abort landing approaches because of the loss of signal — as well as the police and rescue services. Digi.no ↗ TVN24 ↗Besides jamming, where the signal simply disappears, spoofing also occurs. In that case the receiver is given a false position or time and treats it as correct. Nkom measured spoofing in eastern Finnmark itself. Nkom ↗
The authority has been measuring the jamming over the long term, and according to NRK it found that in Finnmark and parts of northern Norway the jamming comes from areas east of the border, that is, from Russia. According to The Barents Observer, the Russian side had not answered Nkom's formal request for information by May, and the authority declined to specify which locations the signal comes from. Nkom is adding more measuring stations because the jamming is being detected deeper and deeper inside Norwegian airspace. NRK ↗ The Barents Observer ↗
A proposal the authorities prepared in advance
A joint study by Justervesenet and Nkom proposed the national time service earlier this year. The government money is therefore not a reaction to one specific event, but a decision to launch a project that the authorities had prepared. Digi.no ↗ Teknisk Ukeblad ↗Back in 2025, Nkom was already considering, among other options, distributing time over optical fibres and terrestrial radio transmitters. Nkom ↗
Limits of this view
So far this is a government proposal in the state budget, not approved money or a finished system. The sources state the amount, why the state wants the service, and that Sikt is to build it. They do not say where the clocks will be located or when the service is to go live.None of the Norwegian sources says that the government ties the money directly to the Russian jamming. The authorities justify the project by security and preparedness, and the jamming appears in the reports as background. The causal link is emphasized mainly by the Polish TVN24, which ran the story under a headline about a response to Russia's actions.
The Russian origin of the jamming is Nkom's finding. According to the available sources, Russia has not commented on it.
What hotinfo is watching for
- Parliament has approved the 94 million for the national time service in the state budget
- The technical design of the service — how many clocks and where — has been published
- Sikt or Justervesenet have announced a launch date for the service
- Another Nordic or Baltic state has announced its own backup for satellite time
- Russia has replied to Nkom request for information about the jamming
Illustrative photo: the headquarters of Justervesenet, the Norwegian metrology authority, in Kjeller near Oslo. The photo dates from 2009. Author GAD, Wikimedia Commons, licence CC BY-SA 3.0.
